At the heart of Old and New Testament worship is the relationship with God, a relationship through which the Lord shapes those who belong to him. However, this relationship of worship, as the biblical prophets forcefully say, is threatened by idolatry. Gregory Beale, in his study of this theme throughout the biblical books, highlights an astonishing reality: we end up resembling what we worship. For our worship is an attachment: attachment to the Lord or to the idol. The idolater becomes, like the idol he reveres, incapable of seeing and hearing, spiritually “anesthetized,” insensitive to spiritual realities.
From the message of the prophets but also from the rest of the Bible, this book reveals applications that are rarely cited, still valid today even if the forms of idolatry have changed significantly since the golden calf of the Exodus. The reader is invited to identify in his own context not only the forms that idolatry takes but also the transfers that it produces: in what way does the idolater of today resemble his idols and how can will he find the likeness of the true God?
Gregory K. Beale is professor of New Testament at Wheaton College (Chicago). He is the author of numerous biblical commentaries, books and articles.
ISBN: 9782755001808